The Morning After
by titansfan1211
Summary: In which Dick Grayson wakes up hung over and confused in a bed that is not his own. As he sneaks out of the apartment, he runs into the one and only Barbara Gordon.


Dick Grayson opened his eyes to an unfamiliar setting - a familiar issue these days. The light hurt his eyes, which he scrunched shut once again, noting with relief that the source of his pounding headache was a hangover rather than a nasty beating. (Odds were 50/50 these days.)

He tried to piece together his memories of the night before. He had been drinking. That much was certain. Drinking at… a bar? A club? Both? Both. Connor had invited him out for a drink first. As to why, Dick was unclear - as far as he could piece together, Connor wasn't actually capable of getting drunk - and Dick was underage. But Dick didn't exactly keep his fake ID a secret, and he was the only one hanging around the cave… Whatever. Irrelevant. A mystery for another time.

So he went out with Connor… Right. Conner left pretty early - something about plans with M'gann… Dick _was _planning on going home and getting some work done, until…until… what? AH. Right. Wally.

And Artemis, surprisingly. There it was. Memories were coming back. Wally and Artemis were going out to the club to celebrate the end of midterms. Wally asked Dick to join them. He remembered dancing. Doing shots with Artemis that Wally was unwilling to take… Different shots with Wally. Talking to strangers… Dancing with strangers… Drinking with strangers… which, he supposed, brought him to his current predicament.

Forcing his eyes open, Dick slowly sat up, gently removing the arm snaked around his waist. Putting his stealth training to good use, he quickly and quietly located his scattered clothing, and slipped out the door without so much as a backwards glance at the person in bed, still sound asleep. He made his way to the bathroom, got dressed, and took a few minutes to wash the hangover off of his face.

Unfortunately, this was a routine he was all too good at. He had perfected it over the last few months, thanks to a combination of stress, alcohol, and the need to feel needed. Of course, he always felt worse in the morning, but that fact hadn't stopped him yet.

Sneaking down the hallway, he ignored the nagging sense of deja vu as he stumbled his way to the door of the apartment. He was nearly home free, when suddenly-

"Dick? Is that you?" he spun around at the sound of his name, and was surprised to find a familiar figure curled up on the living room sofa.

"Babs? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Uhhh I live here?" He realized it even as she said it. Suddenly alert, he fully took in his surroundings, which he realized very, _very_ familiar. With a scrutinizing gaze, she turned it back to him. "What are you doing here?"

His head was spinning and his brain was fried, still trying to piece together the tail end of his evening.

"To be completely honest, I don't remember how I got here," he admitted, glancing down the hallway.

Following his gaze down the hall, Barbara realized. "You didn't."

"Didn't what?" he played dumb, though the scarlet creeping up his neck gave him away.

"My roommate? God, I can't believe you sometimes," she scoffed. With a sigh, she made her way to the front door, slipping on her sneakers. "Come on, boy blunder."

"Where are we going?"

"First and foremost, we're getting _you_ OUT of this apartment before anyone else wakes up. Secondly, I could use some coffee. And by the looks of it, you could too." She opened the front door, motioning for him to exit. "You're buying, by the way."

Dick simply nodded his head in agreement. "That's fair."

Awkwardly, the pair made their way to the lobby, stopping at the front desk. Sweetly, Barbara walked up to the security guard. "Hi, my roommate had a guest over last night but she's still sleeping, and he needs to get going. Any chance I could sign him out for her?"

The security guard nodded, rummaged through a drawer, and pulled out a box of IDs. She turned to Dick. "Room number?"

"Uhh…" He turned to Barbara for assistance, but she was in no mood to be helpful. "3- no, 402," he corrected. The security guard turned back to the box, as Barabara rolled her eyes at the situation. The security guard, finally locating his ID, handed it over to Dick, then turned to Barbara. "If you could take your roommate's guest card, that would be helpful."

"Sure thing! Thanks so much!" she waved, as they left the building. Once out of earshot, feigning innocence, she asked, "Do you know which one of my roommates' names is on this card? Or is that a blank too?"

"Please allow me the simple joy of coffee before you tear into me," he groaned, rubbing at his temples. The sun was brighter than he remembered.

"I'll allow it," She conceded, as she opened up her wallet to put the guest card inside. "One cup, and then I'm roasting the shit out of you."

A few blocks later, they found themselves in the Time Turner Cafe. They seated themselves, then ordered their breakfast. As the waitress headed off to put in their order, Barbara closely watched her friend from across the table. He was completely zoned out, whether from exhaustion or trying to piece together the night before, she wasn't certain.

"Dick?" she asked, as he snapped back to attention.

"Sorry. Long night."

"Yeah, I feel that," she agreed. Before Dick could ask her what she meant, the waitress came back. "Oh, coffee! Thank GOD."

"Anything to eat?" the waitress asked, as she poured them each a cup.

"Blueberry pancakes, please," Dick answered for them both. Barb's favorite. "A whole lot of em."

"Sure thing!" Leaving the pot of coffee on the table, she bounced off.

Barbara carefully sipped at her black coffee while Dick poured about six packets of sugar into his own. "I swear, you have the palette of a five year old."

"What happened to letting me be till I've had my coffee?"

"Can't help it. The jokes just write themselves."

The pair sat in a companionable silence for a few minutes, downing their respective coffees. Barbara glanced over at Dick, as he sighed into his coffee. Carefully, she broached the subject. "So what _do_ you remember from last night?"

"Drinking, dancing. Nothing useful. Last clear memory I have is doing a round of something or other with Artemis."

"Artemis?" Babs suddenly perked up, "You were out with Artemis last night?"

"Yeah, her and Wally. They texted asking me to go out with them. To celebrate the end of midterms or something."

"Yeah, they invited me too."

"You should have come! It would have been more fun if you were there."

"I did," Babs stared at him, searching. Seeing the guilt flash in his eyes, she added, "Don't worry about it. I don't remember seeing you there either. We probably got there after you left or something."

"Yeah..." Something about what she said wasn't sitting right with him. It was nagging at the back of his mind, but his mind was still too groggy to place what it was. He was almost there, when-

"Blueberry pancakes! A whole lot of em!" the waitress announced, placing the stack, as well as two small plates down on the table.

"Thanks," the pair chorused, as she headed off to her next table.

"Whelp, bone apple teeth," Dick joked, transfering a few pancakes from the top of the stack onto his plate. As the pair ate, Dick took the opportunity to change the subject. "So, earlier you said you had a long night too. What kind of shenanigans did you get into?"

Barb played it off, though he noted the pink tinting her ears and cheeks. "Drinking. Dancing. Shots with Artemis. More dancing. More shots with Artemis. You know how it goes." She shoved a fork full of pancakes into her mouth to avoid further questioning.

Dick smirked at her, "Find a good dance partner?" Choking on her pancakes, Barbara blushed a furious scarlet, even as she reached across the table to slap Dick upside the head. "Relax! I was just teasing!" He laughed, raising his arms in surrender. "Of course, now I'm curious."

"He just slept over, we didn't do anything. And hey, we're here to interrogate you, not me," she deflected. "Coffee jogging your memory at all?"

"Sort of. A lot is still hazy, and there's a solid hour or two that's completely blank," he admitted, frustrated. "It's like there's a piece of the puzzle missing. I think once I find that piece, everything else will click."

"That would be nice," Barbara agreed. "To be honest, I'm missing some of last night too."

"Maybe we ran into each other last night after all," Dick joked.

"While you were all over my roommate? I hope not," she replied with mock disgust.

"Well what do you remember from last night?" Dick asked.

Babs shrugged. "I was with my roommates for a while… then they split off to do…" she glanced at Dick, "_whatever _they went off to do. I was with Artemis and Wally for a while. Talked with them, some other people they were hanging out with. Left."

"With a guy?" Dick pushed, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Well clearly _not_ with my roommate." That shut him up. Momentarily.

"Wait a second - something isn't adding up here." The coffee had finally hit. "You said you left with whatever mystery guy, not your roommates, because they had already left. One of them, presumably with me." Babs nodded. "But earlier we established that we had missed each other last night, also presumably because I had already left with your roommate. But if you showed up _with _your roommates, we definitely ran into each other last night."

The pieces still weren't fully coming together in Barbara's mind, but suddenly she had the urge to derail this train of thought at all costs. "Okay, so maybe I got the timeline wrong, but we definitely didn't hang out last nigh-"

"I remember seeing you! You were talking to some guy on the other side of the room!"

"Probably Wally-"  
"Probably the guy you left with, a red head-"

"The guy i left with had dark hair," she realized with a start.

The puzzle pieces had all clicked into place in Barbara's brain. She looked up at Dick to gage his reaction, but apparently things were coming together a little slower for him.

"Red head. Heh. Of course that was Wally. That was dumb of me. Goes to show how far gone I was that I could hardly recognize my best pal. What I don't understand though, is why I didn't go talk to you two once I spotted you."

"Maybe you got distracted by a girl," Barbara diverted.

"-Or you started talking to that guy before I could say hi. Probably didn't want to bother you-"

"Dick, when you go out, do you use your name, or do you use the name on your fake ID?"

"Huh?" Confused by the sudden change in topic, he replied, "Oh. I use the name on my fake. Y'know, in case one of the bouncers or bartenders is paying attention and overhears the discrepancy."

"Uh huh… and my roommate - the one you left with - was it the blonde, or the-?"

"The red hea-" he stopped himself. "Huh."

"Yeah," Barbara simply responded, voice straining slightly as she attempted to keep her composure. "See, the thing is, my other roommate is a brunette."

Sidestepping the conversation, Dick replied, "Must've been the lighting."

"Mmhmm," was all that Barbara could muster.

DIck, hesitantly, and awkwardly asked, "Soooo…. That guy you went home with. Do you remember his name… or…?"

"I think he went by Joey," she asked, more than told.

"Joey," Dick anxiously chuckled, "What a coincidence, that's the name I use when I go out. Joey Gr-"

"Green," Barbara finished. The pair stared at each other, waiting for the other to react.

Barbara slowly unzipped her wallet, pulling out the guest card. "Any guesses as to whose name is on this card?" She felt like she was in the twilight zone.

"I think…" he tentatively answered, "That card likely belongs to a Miss Barbara Gordon." She flipped the card over, seeking final confirmation. Sure enough, her own name was printed across the top.

"Huh."

"Huh." He couldn't help the small smile on his face when he looked back at her. As she glanced up, he tried to hide it behind his coffee cup, sipping like he hadn't been staring at her with goo goo eyes a second earlier..

"What?" He looked away, pointedly ignoring the question. "_What?_" she pressed. "Don't tell me you're going to be all weird about it now."

"Me? Weird? Never," he smirked.

"Dork," she lightly punched him in the shoulder, smiling.

And just like that, everything was business as usual.

For now, at least.


End file.
